About

Manuel Cardoso’s extant works comprise five volumes of sacred choral music, published in Lisbon in the first half of the seventeenth century. Luís Toscano and Cupertinos here reveal a selection of the very finest.

Reviews

April 2019

Beautifully sung by unaccompanied voices, this programme of devotional music is built around the contemplative Requiem.

January 2019

Tenderness, solemnity, and profound feeling for the text inform this emotionally saturated performance. The ten voices are directed from within by tenor Luís Toscano, whose intimate knowledge of every note (having edited all these works) glows throughout. Portuguese polyphony sung by Portuguese voices – it couldn’t be more authentic.

January 2019

This is the first recording by Cupertinos for Hyperion and it is a pleasure to have a Portuguese ensemble tackle its native repertory. The sound is bright and privileges the higher voices, the lower ones being light baritones rather than basses…I look forward to hearing more from them soon: Cardoso’s music deserves further exposure.

March 2019

Hyperion’s excellent new Portuguese choir shine in this fine recital of works by a ‘local’ Renaissance hero.

December 2018

Founded in 2009 to bring Portuguese polyphony to a wider international audience, this 11-voice vocal ensemble make an assured and attractive debut here, the texture pleasantly dominated by their three sweet-toned sopranos; the Victoria-esque Requiem is the centrepiece, but the most interesting works are the motets, particularly the imaginatively-set Domine, tu mihi lavas pedes? which depicts the dialogue between Peter and Christ as the latter washes his disciples’ feet.